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-- THE ARCHIVE --

TAIWAN

China Post, Taipei, 2 May 2007

MOJ opposes caning for sex offenders

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) expressed its opposition
yesterday to a proposal to bring caning and chemical castration into the nation's judicial system to punish sex offenders, saying
that such measures violate human rights -- treasured by Taiwanese
people as part of their core values.

MOJ officials said there is no evidence to support the
assertion that caning or chemical castration can prevent sex
offenders from committing the same crime after being punished.

They said that at present, the MOJ prefers to use electronic
monitoring to control convicted rapists and will need some time
to implement that measure before an assessment can be made on its
effectiveness.

The officials added that the MOJ reached the conclusion after
calling a meeting in late March to solicit views from scholars
and experts on whether to allow the use of caning and chemical
castration to punish serious sex offenders, in addition to prison
terms.

Several ruling Democratic Progressive Party legislators
floated the proposal of introducing an amendment to the 1997
Sexual Assault Prevention Act to allow the caning of convicted
rapists after police arrested two men who abducted a medical
school co-ed from a motorbike parking lot near a mass rapid
transit station in Taipei March 11, drove her to a riverbank park
and raped her.

One of the criminals, Lin Shih-huan, 38, also robbed and raped
a 64-year-old female taxi driver while he was hiding from police.

Lin and his accomplice, Hung Chieh-hung, 39, were indicted in
late April. Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for Lin and
a 16-year sentence for Hung.